Ukraine to spend UAH20B on drones in 2023

In 2023, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine will expand the procurement of unmanned aerial vehicles for the Armed Forces.

This was announced in a comment to Ukrinform by Commander of the Joint Forces Lieutenant General Serhiy Naiev following a meeting of representatives defense officials, the General Staff, national UAV designers and manufacturers.

According to the commander, taking into account the needs and requests of the Ukrainian Army, in 2023, about UAH 20 billion is to be directed to this end.

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles significantly expands reconnaissance capabilities in general: "From the air, it is possible to monitor the enemy's positions well, identify, as they say in the military, 'fat' targets, on which fire damage must be inflicted immediately, transmitting this information to our fire damage capabilities."

Naiev noted that this is a very big step forward, as UAVs can perform tasks without putting at risk the lives of the crew operating them.

"In this way, the mass use of unmanned aerial vehicles will allow us to advance more quickly during offensive action, as well as significantly reduce the enemy combat potential and completely force them to refrain from offensive moves in certain directions," the lieutenant general emphasized. "We protect the lives of our soldiers and destroy the enemy at ranges available to us."

1,711 drones have already been contracted within the framework of the "Army of Drones" project; almost 1,000 of them have been handed over to the military defending Ukraine.